This invention deals generally with dumping vehicles and more specifically with a self propelled trailer that has lifting, dumping, and rear extension features.
Stripping old material from a building roof in order to put on a new roof is a time consuming and dirty job. It sometimes involves throwing the old material to the ground around the building and then manually picking it up to put it into a disposal container. Even if the material can be thrown directly into a container there remains the problem of getting the container or the material onto a vehicle to move it off the work site. The most common solution to the disposal problem is to move a dump truck adjacent to the building and to attempt to throw the material directly from the roof into the truck bin. Furthermore, the problem is not limited to roofing material. Any building remodeling generates significant construction trash, and the most convenient method of removing it from the building is to throw it out a window
However, it is not always possible to move a large truck into a location adjacent to a building. Fences, lawns, and shrubs can easily be damaged by any size truck, and it is even more likely when dealing with the typical large dump truck.
It would be very beneficial to have a vehicle that could move around the typical landscaped yard surrounding a building and could place a collection container in a location to collect discarded material without damaging the lawn and plants. Substantially greater benefit would be derived from such a vehicle if it could also unload the collection container into a standard dump truck parked on or near the work site.
The present invention is a road-legal trailer for collecting discarded construction material directly as it is stripped from a building and for dumping the material into a nearby larger vehicle. The trailer is self propelled by an on board small power source so that it can move within a job site to areas inaccessible to larger vehicles.
The basic structure of the invention is a bin with closed sides and a tailgate, and the bin is mounted on two main beams that pivot at the front of the trailer chassis, so that the bin can be raised as high as the eaves of a roof by a first set of lifting hydraulic pistons raising the rear end of the main beams upward. The main beams can also be extended out beyond the rear of the trailer by an extension hydraulic piston that moves sleeve-like beam extensions of the main beams rearward. A pair of support beams pivoting from the beam extensions can be raised by a second set of lifting hydraulic pistons so that the front of the support beams can be raised and the bin leveled.
This permits the convenient collection of discarded construction material with a container that can be placed high and immediately adjacent to the exterior sides of a building. For roof work, it means that the container can be placed just below the roof edge and under the roof overhang, and material can be thrown directly from the roof into the bin while protecting flower beds or bushes that are up against the building wall.
When the bin requires emptying, it is moved under its own power to a dump truck. Then, without lowering the entire bin, the tailgate is opened, and the bin is tilted rearward to dump its load over the high side of a truck. This tilting is accomplished simply by extending the second set of lifting hydraulic pistons even more to raise the front of the bin.
Both sides of the bin have flap-like extension panels attached to their top edges. These extension panels are opened outward and supported at an angle sloping into the bin by angularly extending chains. When opened at the work site, these extension panels approximately double the catch area of the bin and prevent stray material from falling to the ground.
Hydraulic jacks located at the corners of the trailer chassis stabilize the apparatus when it is collecting material, and particularly when the bin is extended rearward.
The trailer of the present invention thereby makes it possible to collect material from a window, door, or the roof of a building without disturbing the landscaping. In fact, the narrow width of the preferred embodiment of the invention even makes it possible to move the vehicle through a typical gate in a residential fence. Furthermore, it permits dumping the collected material directly from the collection bin into a truck of virtually any size.